Investigation|Community group buying exposes quality control worries: Buying Armani watches for 599 yuan is difficult to verify the real body
After a place of chicken feathers, community group buying turned into beautiful bubbles.
And Yang Tong (pseudonym) and his party are immersed in the good time of harvesting "burning subsidies", which has become their only clue to capture the existence and struggle of giants.
As a local promoter of the Tenhui Mission in Henan, Yang Tong's income includes the number of team leaders developed and the commission from the team leader's business.
"Ten Hui groups have rewards and support in individual months. The local promotion team has expanded more than 100 leaders and rewarded 9,888 yuan. I registered a few leaders in a month and earned more than 1,000 yuan."
Internet giants have entered the community group buying, and staking is still a familiar model.
In 2020, the epidemic has spawned community group buying into the "resurrection match". Meituan, Didi, Pinduoduo, Ali, JD.com and others have entered the market with high-profile, from capital deployment to personal participation, accompanied by a series of actions such as investment in shares and organizational structure adjustments. When the flames continue, "Internet giants don't just worry about the flow of a few bundles of cabbage and a few kilograms of fruit" but it seems like a sobering agent.
Many Internet platform insiders told reporters from the Beijing News that, starting from a series of anti-monopoly supervisions, including community group buying operations, companies are actively cooperating with supervision.
However, this "vegetable basket" horse racing has never stopped. The giants have stabilized their network in some low-tier cities. In addition to recruiting high-paying recruits, stores, group leaders, and local pushers have already been contended for "placement" early.
The reporter's investigation has learned that some communities have even been saturated with multiple heads. In addition, low prices and price doubts still exist.
Grab a beach
The short-lived "blitzkrieg" of the ground pushing for the leader
"You don't have to worry about it at all. Just scan my code and just register. The food will be delivered directly to you, and I will get you in the group." Part-time jobs, zero cost, and carelessness have become the reasons why many storefronts are pushed to "persuade you to surrender".
Liu Li (pseudonym) runs a Best Express site in Hubei, and currently serves as the head of Shihui Group and Meituan Optimal Group.
"I'm so annoying. Five or six people come to me a day to ask me to register as the team leader." She said that in November last year, people rode to the courier station every day. At first it was small talk, but eventually they turned to the same topic. : Can you register a leader on our platform?
On average three times a day, they visited the door for two weeks. Liu Li's attitude changed from "willing to listen to the commission" to "hurried away."
She told the Beijing News reporter that when she urged the shop owner to register as the head of the platform, she would give enticing promises, including helping her with the operation, but "when you really register and start business, people will disappear."
The tirelessness of the local push staff is naturally driven by salary.
In the early stage of entering the city, community group buying platforms will recruit local businesses to distribute flyers or verbally explain the business. The pressure caused by capital agitation and giant competitions increases, and the bottom employees need to grab more resources in a short time.
The local promotion commissioner's recruitment advertisement in Sichuan shows that the local promotion can get a commission after successfully inviting merchants to settle in. Each order will make a profit of 30 to 50 yuan. The average daily order volume is 10 to 20 orders, and the daily salary is about 450 yuan. .
Yang Tong (pseudonym), a local promoter of the Shihui Mission in Henan, introduced to the Beijing News that the main sources of income for the local promoters of the Shihui Mission are two parts. One is that the number of leaders developed by the local promoter team during the week is lower than 15 people (the total amount of orders for each team leader needs to be more than 200 yuan per week), and the weekly income of each pusher is 50 yuan multiplied by the number of team leaders; the number of development team leaders reaches 15 or more, and each pusher The weekly income is 70 yuan multiplied by the number of group leaders.
In addition, the local pushers can get 8% of the commission of all the developed group leaders, that is to say, the group leader earns 1,000 yuan in commission a month, and the local pushers can earn 80 yuan.
Yang Tong revealed that the Ten Hui Group has recently been rewarded and supported, and the local promotion team expanded more than 100 heads, rewarding 9,888 yuan.
"The policy is good this month, and I will start working hard again."
Although Yang Tong intends to make a pot of gold, the carnival is not lasting.
Wang Min (pseudonym), a human resources officer in charge of land recruitment for Hema in central China, said that leading companies would not do this level of land recruitment and would normally package them to professional human resources companies. Three human resources companies will be recruited for "horse racing" when one city recruits land.
"This is not just a matter of grabbing the team leader. Human resource suppliers will also grab qualified people who can be the team leader and the team leader." Wang Min said that in the same time, there are more people and quality. The higher, the more profitable the supplier.
She said that due to the limited amount of space required in the end, these people have a short working life cycle.
As the city's business stabilizes, the ground push that was madly grabbed in the early stage will also be dissolved.
Low price
Rough solicitation still exists, and the newcomer can "sweep the wool" for a penny
After several months of exploration on major platforms, Yang Tong discovered new "business opportunities". He used the discounts of major platforms to purchase goods from low-price platforms, and let the group leader sell them on another platform to obtain a profit in the middle.
"For example, today the cucumber on this community group buying platform sells for 1 yuan per catty, but another platform may sell for 1.5 yuan per catty tomorrow. I will ask the team to resell the cucumbers at a lower price on the platform to customers."
What Yang Tong drills is precisely the loophole of the platform's subsidy for burning money.
This time, low-price competition is still the way Internet giants play, and many community group buying platforms have launched discounts for newcomers at lower than market prices.
On December 24, 2020, a reporter from the Beijing News searched the Shihui Tuan platform and found that merchants launched various preferential policies to attract new customers. Newcomers with a price of 0.01 yuan can buy toilet paper at a market price of 6 to 10 yuan or a market price4 Household daily necessities such as soy sauce ranging from RMB to RMB 5.
In addition, there are vouchers with varying amounts for newcomers.
As of January 12, the reporter checked the platform again, and the "Penny Buying" activity was changed to a special offer for newcomers ranging from 0.1 yuan to 1 yuan.
On the same day, Orange Heart's preferred newcomer exclusive discount was 0.01 yuan to buy 500g of Huangyan mandarin orange, a lemon, etc.
For a lot of food, the first order is a full rebate, up to 40 yuan.
Internet platforms have invested heavily in community group purchases, and users have become a common psychology.
Several delegation leaders told the Beijing News reporter that the price of the goods sold directly caused their commission to be low. The average unit price of vegetables is 2.98 yuan, and the commission is up to 0.2 yuan, while a bottle of milk for 20 yuan can be commissioned to 2. High-priced items such as frozen products and meat will bring more income, but also need to increase storage costs such as freezers.
During the formal business process, the group leaders could clearly feel that "customers buy fruits and vegetables with low unit prices."
The Beijing News reporter's investigation found that delegation leaders have various commission methods, and the most common is to draw according to the proportion of orders.
"There are other cares for the group leader. For example, our platform today launched a popular model, priced at 1 yuan, limited to 100 copies. If you sell 100 copies, you will be rewarded 160 yuan. Of course, you can also buy 100 copies yourself. Can earn 60 yuan.” said Du Ping (pseudonym), the head of investment promotion of a city in Henan Province.
Community group buying commissions have gradually become transparent. The commissions of the heads of each platform, such as Shihui Group, Xingsheng Optimal, Duoduomai, and Meituan Optimal, are on average 8% to 10%. The commissions of some companies in different regions may fluctuate, up to 15%. %.
At the same time, some platforms will attract group leaders through subsidies, red envelopes, etc. when the city is opened. For example, Duoduobu takes a high subsidy method. In addition to the 10% to 20% of the group leader’s commission, the number of orders placed in the store reaches 20 people per day. , The group leader can also get a cash reward of 20 yuan.
The giants fancy the strong traffic entrance of the community, and the leader becomes the implementer of the core link, which is related to the reduction of operating costs and the maintenance and service of the customer group.
Wang Peng (pseudonym), head of investment promotion of Xingsheng Optimal Group, told the Beijing News reporter that Xingsheng Optimal stipulates that the group leader must have more than 300 orders within a month, otherwise it will be regarded as an inefficient store.
"The platform will release a pre-freeze list every month, and if the performance has not been able to work, it will be frozen by the platform."
In this regard, Zhao Zhanzhan, a lawyer at Beijing Yunjia Law Firm, stated that the current low-price dumping behavior is mainly regulated by the anti-monopoly law. If the platform company has a dominant market position in the relevant market, it will sell below cost without a valid reason. , It is suspected of abuse of market dominance, which is a monopolistic behavior.
Crack down on fakes
The community buys a watch for 599 yuan, the buyer: it is identified as fake
"The big Internet platforms are accounted for and posted before the end of the market. The penetration rate of fresh food e-commerce is less than 5%. Community group buying is not only selling fruits and vegetables, but also selling everything, such as daily necessities, clothing, home appliances, 3C digital, beauty, etc. "Central University of Finance and Economics Professor Ouyang Rihui, vice president of China Internet Economic Research Institute, said that community group buying is to seize the online and offline consumer goods retail market from urban to rural areas.
This is a 40 trillion yuan market.
Fresh products are only the first shots fired by the giants. With the rapid advancement, product quality and quality control issues have become hidden concerns.
Wang Yang (pseudonym) bought an Armani Gypsophila female watch on a community group buying platform on December 5, 2020, and paid 599 yuan.
Because the price is too low compared to the market price, Wang Yang said that he has repeatedly confirmed with the customer service of the platform whether the watch is genuine, and the customer service also promised to take it for identification after receiving the goods. The identification is false. Refund.
Wang Yang said that the authenticity of the watch was verified by the method provided by Armani customer service as soon as he got the watch at the self-pickup point: The code was identified through the WatchStation international fashion watch applet of Shanghai Fusi Trading Company, a domestic distributor of Armani watches, and the result was "This code cannot be recognized" is displayed.
The above mini program customer service told Wang Yang that they did not authorize the community to buy and sell this watch. As for the source of the goods, it is not clear. At present, not only the authenticity cannot be guaranteed, and the non-brand authorization cannot enjoy the normal warranty.
In this regard, a reporter from the Beijing News consulted with Armani's official website customer service and learned that if customers buy watches on Armani's official website in China, they can check the authenticity through the above methods, and other channels can only refer to them.
After that, Wang Yang claimed to appraise the watch on the third-party appraisal platform Dewu app and get app, and the results were all fakes.
Regarding this result, Wang Yang contacted the customer service of the platform who bought the watch again.
“The customer service promised that a commissioner would contact him within 24 hours, but the relevant business personnel did not communicate until three days later, and said that an authentication certificate from a nationally authorized watch authentication authority must be issued to determine compensation." Wang Yang was caught in a dilemma, she inquired. The appraisal price to the relevant national authorized agency is four thousand yuan, far exceeding the price of the watch.
However, a reporter from the Beijing News called the National Watch and Clock Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, and the operator said that he would not accept the authenticity of fashion watches, only the famous watches, and consumers need to contact the brand for authentication.
Liu Kerui (pseudonym) is also defending rights for this watch, because the result of the scan code inspection is also "this code is not recognized", he also consulted the customer service of the WatchStation applet about the two authorization letters provided by this community platform, and the other party responded that "No relevant authorization information was found."
On January 12, 2021, a reporter from the Beijing News found that this watch had been taken off the shelves, and the sales page showed monthly sales of 580 copies.
At least five of the consumers who recently bought this watch in the comment area questioned the authenticity of the product.
Competition
Giants win community group buying: aiming at sinking, raise salary by 30%
Although problems continue to emerge, with the huge halo of low customer acquisition costs, the giants have stabilized their network in the sinking market mainly in second, third, and fourth-tier cities and county-level cities.
A reporter from the Beijing News checked the cities served by community group buying platforms. At present, there are community group buying businesses in South China, North China, and central China.
As early as July 7, 2020, Meituan issued an organizational adjustment announcement stating that it had established a "preferred business unit" under the charge of Chen Liang, Meituan's senior vice president and S-team member, and officially entered the community group buying track.
It is already the first-level division of Meituan, the company's indisputable "frontline".
In the next two months, Meituan Optimal announced that the first batch will be launched in Jinan, Wuhan, Guangzhou and other places, and plans to enter 20 provinces within 3 months, and achieve "thousand cities" coverage within this year.
"The company has deployed manpower support in various departments." Meituan employee Wang Xiao (pseudonym) said that to go to the best is to go to the battlefield. The company has already All in (full investment), "obviously the next Meituan takeaway."
On a new track where people are fighting, "talent" has become one of the focuses of contention.
According to insiders in Meituan, Meituan preferred employees to work on Saturday with double pay, which is equivalent to 8 extra days of salary per month. Converted to an average of 21.75 paid working days per month, it is equivalent to a direct salary increase of 36%.
Didi is also "recruiting troops" to win community group purchases.
In mid-November 2020, Li Mao (pseudonym) left JD.com, which he joined after graduation, and stepped into the Didi Building 50 kilometers away with a higher salary offer notice.
Li Mao revealed that Didi gave all employees of Orange Heart you a wartime allowance, which is about 20% of the employees' monthly basic salary.
At the same time, Li Mao's human resources promise before joining that Didi must give priority to employees by giving priority to employees.
Also this month, Didi CEO Cheng Wei made a strong voice at the internal meeting: Didi has no upper limit on the investment in Orange Heart Optimization, and it wants to win the first place in the community group buying track.
A reporter from the Beijing News found that Ali, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Meituan, and Didi have all raised their flags in the community group buying field.
Among them, Ali and Pinduoduo's e-commerce App homepage puts the community group buying entrance on the first screen.
Not only that, the Pinduoduo App’s Duoduo Food portal is higher than the 10 billion subsidy portal, and the Taobao Food portal is higher than Juhuasuan and Taobao Live.
Ten billion subsidies, Juhuasuan, and Taobao live broadcast are the first-level strategic projects of the two major e-commerce companies in recent years.
In addition, Jingdong Group announced at the end of last year that it will strategically invest in Hunan Xingsheng Optimal Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. with a strategic investment of 700 million US dollars.
Prior to this, JD.com has reported that Liu Qiangdong, JD’s top figure, will lead a team to fight a community group purchase.
After successive official announcements and the "nine must-not" operating red lines for community group buying at the end of December, reporters from the Beijing News learned from many parties that the current leading Internet companies are stepping up efforts to organize antitrust and other industry experts to conduct discussions, and at the same time actively Cooperate with regulatory investigations.
According to a person close to Meituan, the Beijing News reporter said that the Meituan community group buying department has recently launched a layoff plan.
Retreat
The group leader has no threshold, so I don’t want to do it anymore.
The food basket war has not extinguished, but whether the community group buying is a pseudo-need has yet to be answered.
After the epidemic, user consumption habits have changed, and Internet traffic is facing a growth ceiling. Internet analyst Tang Xin believes that giants’ entry into community group purchases chooses to deepen long-tail traffic, including doing some business with a heavy asset model, such as establishing community warehousing and logistics systems, and community sales. Channels, etc., are actually giants who are building their own business moats.
However, not everyone buys it.
Some users told the Beijing News reporter that they did try to shop on the community group buying platform because of the low price, but they bought it once or twice.
According to the calculation of Kaiyuan Securities Research Report, the size of the community group buying market has reached 100 billion yuan, and the industry chain usually includes four links: suppliers, platforms, group leaders, and consumers.
Because it mainly relies on community residents, the customer acquisition cost of community group buying is lower than that of general e-commerce. With low entry barriers, the group leader’s mobility and the long supply chain are bottlenecks restricting the development of community group buying companies.
Nowadays, it has been a few months since joining the community group buying, Liu Li still believes that she is passively participating in the race.
In addition to the unfulfilled ancillary work and higher commission promises, she is not satisfied with the "proliferation" of community group buying.
"There are at least 5 team leaders in a community. Some people even place an order and don't know where they are. They can't find the team leader's shop."
At present, the community group buying market in Changsha, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an and other cities is mature, and the group leaders are saturated with it. There are more than 5 group leaders in a community.
In the beginning, the group leader is generally a business that has stores around the community, including vegetable and fruit shops and tobacco, alcohol and non-staple food shops.
Later, mothers, office workers, convenience stores, supermarkets, express delivery points, etc. can all become the front end of community group buying, and they can also serve as the heads of multiple platforms.
A reporter from the Beijing News found that in order to complete the task, the requirements of the delegation leader were gradually lowered.
From the very beginning, a WeChat group with at least a hundred people was required to become a leader, and gradually it was relaxed to a group of only 40 or 50 people.
"This is very easy to meet the standard, and you can just pull relatives and friends to get enough." Wang Peng said.
Wang Peng said bluntly that the job of head of the group is a bit like selling insurance.
The order volume brought by the new leader B and C by the leader A can also contribute to A's rewards. Even the cumulative orders for B1, B2, C1, and C2 later developed by B and C belong to A's performance.
However, the threshold is lowered and the head of the delegation is also moving towards the elimination stage.
Li Nan (pseudonym), the head of Beijing Jingdong District Shopping Group, told the Beijing News that Jingdong District Shopping will give the group leader 10% of the order amount as a commission. The higher the amount of the customer’s order, the more commission the group leader will receive. But "I really can't make much money, I make about 50 yuan in one day."
Liu Li told reporters that after working for a month and a half, the workload has greatly increased. The actual income is 600 yuan, and he is considering whether to continue to be the head of the delegation.
The head "flowers everywhere", and there are many people who have retired.
Huang Min (pseudonym) was the first group to become the group leader of Xingsheng in Suizhou, Hubei. In her memory, in 2018, they signed a contract from Suizhou to Wuhan. At that time, more than 100 people signed to become the group leader. The scene was very popular. Basically They are all merchants of various retail stores in Suizhou City.
Now Huang Min has closed the online store on Xingsheng Optoelectronics. “Last year, it was only bought by relatives and friends. I have to help them deliver goods. I can’t make much money and I’m tired”.
Beijing News reporter Cheng Zijiao and intern Lin Mengxue